NEWS

We get in touch online, because she tag us in post. We talked about her wonderful work on Groot model, so you can now read, how she get this nice result.

Is printing your hobby or is it a full time job? Because we checked your Instagram and it looks pretty good there.3D printing is a hobby at the moment although it takes up most of my free time..... but I totally love it. I bought my first printer in May 2016 and it just went from there. I've learned tons in the last year and there is such a great 3Dprinting community out there. I can honestly say I've met some great people on forums and especially on instagram. If I've had a problem I need help with, I've never been stuck for long, theres always someone there ready to jump in and help. And people are out there posting some great content, its really inspiring. So many great ideas and designs being brought to life, meaning that its one of the most exciting communities out there.So where to go for those people? Give us please any tips for groups, webs etc A lot of the help I’ve received is from others on instagram. If I post a pic about a particular problem, people are really quick to jump in and offer advice - it’s great. @print_itsolid really helped me out when I was struggling to get through my first prints on the Wanhao, helped me dial it in until i got the quality I was looking for.I also joined the facebook group ‘Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus’ which has also been really helpful. Not only with troubleshooting but also being able to see what upgrades people are doing to their machines and which are worthwhile. Thingiverse also has a lot of useful groups focused on specific printers or areas. These can be really great too. I used youtube videos to help me upgrade the hotend on my printer. At the end of it you come away feeling like you’ve learnt alot more and it builds confidence. You can then go on and share knowledge with others needing advice.

There was a big “Groot boom” in the beginning of this year. This one is one of the best and complex we have seen. Have you seen the film/films?Thank you. I'd finally gotten around to watching the first film a few weeks back. No idea why I hadn’t watched it sooner as I loved it! Sadly by this point I missed the chance to catch the second film at the cinema. So now I can’t wait to watch it when it’s released!

Which printer did you used for Timberfill, which is the print made of? In which settings? I printed the Baby Groot (from thingiverse - thing number 2014307) on my Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus, using Fillamentum Timberfill in the light wood colour. The model prints in two parts - the head and the body. I actually scaled both parts down to 90% - mainly due to the time it was going to take to print them. I used 20% infill and 0.20mm layer height. The first print of the body failed as I;d forgotten to amend my retraction settings. But this kinda worked out well as it meant I had a piece to test painting on later. After I amended my retraction settings - reduced retraction distance and speed a little, it had no further issues and came out great. I printed the first 2 layers at 190 degrees and the rest at 185 degrees.

Which tools are you using to post process?The only sanding I did to the model was around the neck where it had to slot into the body. I left the rest of the model as it was because it came out so well. I didn’t want to lose any of the wood feel, or any of the detail on the design. Other than that, I had a little bit of string to clear up and for this I used a sharp hobby knife. This helps keep the print clean and defined. But honestly I didn’t have a lot to do before I painted it.

We do see also some post process with coloring and moss addition. Which type of color did you used? Any sanding? How did you make the moss?To finish the model I wanted to fully paint it. I used a combination of airbrushing and hand painting. I've always had success using Tamiya Acrylic model paints, so I went with those again for this. I started with black and hand painted all the crevices and lines with this colour. I then airbrushed the entire model in brown. This gave it some depth in the lines where the black made it look darker. Once it was dry I mixed up a lighter brown and dry brushed the over the surface. This gave the wood effect I was looking for, and because I used wood timberfill it looked and felt realistic. Once it was dry I applied an olive green to parts of the model to give it a living feel. I then added in a few more shades of green to try and add more depth and then sprayed the entire model with a clear matt varnish coat to protect the paint. Finally I used some coarse light turf I picked up from a craft shop to add the moss effect. I used a hobby tool to apply some poly cement and then carefully add in tiny bits of the moss and that was it finished. It was a really fun project, and this little guy is just too cute :).

Thank you Rachael to share your skills with us!You are very welcome. Thanks for having me!

Niels Oestbjerg aka Webberen is a 3D printing and design enthusiast from Denmark. He loves to test materials and everything new. So we send him Prototypum adhesive pad and this is an interview about it.

Hello Niels, thank you for your time how are you? : )Hello, no problem, I'll gladly assist you with your questions.

What kind of printer/s do you have?Currently I have a Wanhao Duplicator i3, the first version. It is heavily modded, and I am glad to see, that Wanhao have made a lot of the changes on their newest models.

I am working on getting the final pieces together on my own 3d printer. A 30x30cm diy-beast. I have designed it from scratch, but it's still a work in progress.

I hope to have a real Prusa i3 machine in my printroom real soon, also I think that I need some more, and different machines overall, to be able to make some better tests of filaments and other 3D-print stuff. Also I run into prints queuing up with just the one working printer.

What were the first impressions about the Prototypum pad?First unboxing, you get this amazing packaging, and working in the packaging industry every day, I was very pleased to see that Prototypum knows, that this is the first way to interact with your customers. In the package I then found this cool pad that looked like it was made from very high quality materials, and I then realized that it was with a magnetic slipmat making it easy to remove after each print. This feature is fantastic, I know I lot of printers where it's not easy to access prints when they sit on the printbed, and this takes care of that. They also include a cool scraper and a meassure-piece for bed leveling.

On which material types did you try the pad?I started with the Fillamentum Timberfill which is a PLA-like filament of which I know makes some great looking prints, also I just made the exact same model on my kapton-tape fitted heated bed, so that made it easy to compare the two types of print surfaces. It went very good, and the first layer had a bottom finish that was matte and looked like the rest of the print, where as the kapton tape makes it all glossy on the bottom.

However, I do a lot of prints in ABS-filament, and I really wanted to see how it would work with this, the higher temperature, and ABS-filament being a very lively material. First impressions was poor, I tried to print with no help on the printed piece and it came of halfway in the print. But I jumped on the horse again and gave it a little brim, and this made the world of difference, now I could have a nice stable print, but still I have the ability to remove the entire pad after printing, and by the way, wait until it has cooled down, I print ABS with a bed temperature of 100°C which is extremely hot for your fingers. ;)

We were watching you on your Instagram and it seems there was some problems with ABS…Yes but as stated earlier, I found a good solution for the issue, and it is actually one I always used my self, I just wanted to put some pressure on the product, it was a test after all. ;)

Can you tell us how it goes to use it?I am still going to be testing it with other filaments like some flexible filaments, but I am sure that it will be good for this too. Also I unfortunately have made some small burned markings in the pad from when I aborted a print with a nozzle temperature of 245°C, the nozzle was on first layer, and when it stood still it made a little mark, this should be taken into account with the pad, the surface is not rated for that high temperature when it stands still in the same spot.

What about PLA, did you try it too?Yes in fact I did a fidget spinner in iceland blue PLA. And as I expected it worked very fine on the Prototypum Pad. But then again, PLA is, in my opinion, the easiest filament to lay down.

Is there anything what need to be said about the Prototypum pad?I have a few things you need to know about the pad:

Make sure that when printing in ABS, not to make a too thin brim, or first layer that is. First of all, you should keep the nozzle at least 0.2mm away from the pad when it's hot, otherwise it will burn a line or hole in the Pad. Also it’s a pain to remove leftover on the pad if it’s not thick enough.

Never use acetone on the pad. When using for instance, kapton tape or just a glass surface, you can gain a good grip by rubbing some acetone on the build plate, but you should NEVER do that to your Prototypum Pad, it will dissolve the surface.

Take your time when placing the tape on your build plate. You don't want any bubbles to lift the pad, making for an uneven printbed. If you end up with bubbles, you can of course, use a very sharp knife to puncture them without making any issues afterwards.

How many stars is the pad worth?I'll rate it with **** (4 stars), if the surface could withstand higher heat, like say, kapton tape, it would get 5. It’s is a very good product.